The Trail Went Cold

August 19, 1992. Menasha, Wisconsin. After leaving her workplace, 20-year old Laurie Depies drives to her boyfriend’s apartment complex and parks her car before she vanishes without a trace. Even though witnesses heard her vehicle pull into the lot, they do not report hearing or seeing anything unusual and the only evidence is a cup of soda left on top of the car’s roof. Eighteen years later, a co...

July 4, 1988. San Angelo, Texas. 16-year old Shane Stewart and his 18-year old girlfriend, Sally McNelly, go out to watch a fireworks show together, but never return home and Shane’s abandoned car is found in a park the following morning. Four months later, the couple’s skeletal remains are discovered in a remote pasture and they have both been murdered by shotgun blasts to the head. For years, ru...

Since “The Trail Went Cold” originally launched in February 2016, we have featured over 300 cold cases and unsolved mysteries on the podcast and a decent amount of them have either wound up being solved or had significant developments take place. Two years ago, we released a special “update” episode which detailed a lot of these developments, but there have since been many more new updates to shar...

Christmas Eve 1924. Babbs Switch, Oklahoma. A fire breaks out at a Christmas party taking place at a schoolhouse and claims the lives of 36 people. The remains of one of the presumed victims, three-year old Mary Elizabeth Edens, cannot be found and since Mary’s aunt recalls handing the child to an unknown person, her family believes Mary might have been abducted. Over 32 years later, evidence is f...

December 15, 2000. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The former boss of 53-year old Colleen Wood calls her on her cell phone to invite her to an upcoming Christmas party, but even though Colleen says she will attend, she never shows up and is not heard from again. At the time, Colleen and her boyfriend, John Paul, were planning to leave on a five-year sailing trip around the world on John’s boat, but when...

December 5, 1998. Klamath County, Oregon. Eight-year old Derrick Engebretson travels to Winema National Forest with his father and grandfather in order to get a Christmas tree, but winds up becoming separated from them. An extensive search effort fails to find Derrick, though an eyewitness reports having seen a boy matching Derrick’s description struggling with an unidentified man near the road. Y...

May 14, 1991. Vidor, Texas. 34-year old Kathy Page is found dead inside her car after an apparent crash into a drainage ditch just over 100 yards from her residence. While the scene resembles an accident, the evidence shows that Kathy was actually strangled to death before the crash was staged. Since Kathy’s marriage to her estranged husband, Steve Page, was falling apart and there were a number o...

September 30, 1987. Northumberland County, Virginia. The body of 45-year old Kay Hall is discovered on a back road underneath her pick-up truck. She has been run over and her husband, Bob Hall, immediately becomes the prime suspect. Even though Bob stood to collect on an inheritance Kay had just received and there are issues with his alibi, there is some question about whether he would have been a...

October 8, 2009. Latimer County, Oklahoma. 44-year old Bobby Jamison, his 40-year old wife, Sherilynn Jamison, and their six-year old daughter, Madyson Jamison, leave their home to go look at a plot of land in a remote mountainous area, but never return. Eight days later, their abandoned pick-up truck is discovered on a dirt road located thirty miles from their residence, but even though the famil...

May 25, 2000. Mercer County, Pennsylvania. After last being seen at a convenience store, 46-year old Sandra Kay Baker supposedly phones her fiancée, Billy Crea Jr., to say that she is in danger and cannot return home, but she is never heard from again. Five years later, Billy is named as a suspect in Sandy’s disappearance after a private detective he had once hired named Clifford Aley is charged w...

June 15, 1994. Loxahatchee, Florida. 31-year old Moses Lall and his 36-year old aunt, Lila Buerattan, are discovered to be missing from their ranch, where they run a business breeding and selling exotic birds. They were last heard from eleven days earlier and one of their employees, Daljeet “Hari” Gobin, had reportedly shared a story about seeing them get abducted at gunpoint by two men. Investiga...

June 12, 1987. Flagstaff, Arizona. After finishing her shift at the Flagstaff Medical Center, 40-year old Navajo woman Sarah Saganitso never returns home and her nude body is found in a nearby wooded area the following day. Her exact cause of death is asphyxiation via suffocation and there appear to be bite marks around her left breast. Nearly two months later, a suspect named George Abney is char...

July 16, 1996. Nutley, New Jersey. 36-year old Susan Walsh leaves her son in the care of her estranged husband and says she needs to step out to make some phone calls, but she never returns to her apartment and is not heard from again. At the time, Susan had been working as a freelance journalist and an exotic dancer, but was also struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues. The inves...

February 14, 1945. Lower Quinton, England. 74-year old farm labourer Charles Walton leaves his home in order to spending the day slashing hedges on the slopes of Meon Hill. Later that evening, Charles’ body is discovered next to the hedgerow and he has been beaten with his walking stick, had his throat slashed with a billhook, and been stabbed with a pitchfork. While the original investigation tur...

January 15, 2008. Chicago, Illinois. 15-year old Yasmin Acree is seen going to bed in the basement of her residence, but she is discovered to be missing the following day and there are signs of a break-in on the exterior basement door. Over one year later, Jimmie Terrell Smith, who had previously lived in the upstairs apartment at Yasmin’s residence, is charged with a series of sex crimes and ment...

July 19, 1996. Westwego, Louisiana. After leaving her apartment to walk to a supermarket, 14-year old Crystal Champagne fails to return and is found strangled to death in a wooded area the following evening. When Crystal’s 22-year old step-cousin, Damon Thibodeaux, is interrogated by police, he confesses to her murder and is subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. However, Damon maintains t...

March 27, 2004. London, England. 50-year old Richard Lancelyn Green, considered to be the world’s foremost scholar on Sherlock Holmes, is discovered dead on top of his bed inside his flat. His cause of death is determined to be asphyxiation, as he was garrotted with a shoelace which was tightened around his neck with a wooden spoon. Prior to his death, Lancelyn Green told people his life was in da...

October 28, 1991. Wheeling, Illinois. A 911 dispatcher receives an anonymous call from a payphone by a man asking for medical attention for a woman. When paramedics arrive at the address the caller provides, they discover the unconscious body of 27-year old exotic dancer Jamie Santos on her bedroom floor and it turns out she has been suffocated with a pillow. There is ambiguity about whether the c...

November 7, 1997. New York City. 54-year old Michael Sullivan and his 36-year old girlfriend, Camden Sylvia, vanish without explanation from their loft in Manhattan and are reported missing six days later. Suspicion falls upon the couple’s landlord, Robert Rodriguez, who was involved in a dispute with them prior to their disappearances and refuses to cooperate with the investigation. It turns out...

June 29, 2001. Marysville, Ohio. After completing her shift at the Honda automotive plant, 29-year old Patti Adkins clocks out in order to leave on what she claims is a vacation to Canada with her boyfriend. When Patti fails to return after a week-and-a-half, she is reported missing, but her boyfriend denies this trip took place or that he was even involved in a relationship with Patti. It turns o...

March 1, 1976. Bethesda, Maryland. 37-year old Annette Bishop, her 68-year old mother-in-law Lobelia Bishop, and Annette’s three sons – 14-year old Brad, 10-year old Brent and five-year old Geoffrey – are all bludgeoned to death inside their home. The following day, the victims’ burning bodies are discovered in a shallow hole in a remote area of North Carolina, but the family’s patriarch – 39-year...

February 23, 1974. Los Angeles, California. Police are summoned to the home of 41-year old orthopedic surgeon Ted Loseff after his wife, Wilda, claims that he threatened her with a gun. When police search the residence, they find Ted’s body inside his car in the garage and he has seemingly taken his own life via carbon monoxide poisoning. However, Ted’s mother discovers a number of suspicious disc...

July 26, 1993. Llanharry, Wales. 65-year old Harry Tooze and his 67-year old wife, Megan Tooze, are both shot to death at their remote farm before their bodies are hidden inside the cowshed. The investigation eventually focuses on Jonathan Jones, the boyfriend of the Toozes’ daughter, and after his thumbprint is found on a saucer inside the farmhouse, he is charged with the murders. While Jonathan...

June 13, 1977. Ohio County, West Virginia. Roberta Elam, a 26-year old postulant known as “Sister Robin” who is planning to become a nun, is seen living the motherhouse of the Mount St. Joseph convent. Hours later, Sister Robin’s body is found on top of a nearby hill in a secluded mediation area and she has been raped and strangled to death. There is immediate speculation that the crime might be c...

November 15, 1986. Willow Creek, California. A fire breaks out at a mobile home belonging to the family of 16-year old twin sisters, Jill and Julie Hansen. Both girls receive shotgun blasts to the stomach and while Jill dies at the scene, Julie passes away at the hospital one month later. Since evidence implicates their 21-year old half-brother, Donny Hansen, he is charged with arson and murder an...